S&P Shiller-Case and March existing home sales
No surprises in the latest numbers to come out of S&P Case-Shiller or data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) on existing home sales. While Nationally syndicated writer, Lew Sichelman advised the real estate reading public to not pay too much attention to what he or his colleagues wrote concerning housing prices, the headline writers still seem to catch your attention and compel you to read more with their most alarming snippets.
Home prices fall at fastest rate in 13 years. Courtesy of Marketwatch.
"U.S. home prices continued to fall in February, with 17 of 20 major metro areas seeing lower prices in February compared with January, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday."
Existing home sales plunge 8.4% in March. Courtesy of Marketwatch.
"Sales of existing homes plunged 8.4% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.12 million, the lowest in nearly four years, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday."
As posted here several weeks ago, I was surprised that our March unit sales didn't reflect stronger activity as I was personally busy during the month and it is no surprise that the National statistics showed the same lackluster results in unit sales. While unit sales are off by more than 10% from year ago levels and inventory continues to remain high, Charleston real estate prices have not declined during this housing correction, remaining stable to up slightly.
Charleston shares some of the same characteristics of Charlotte NC with excellent job growth and the S&P Case-Shiller index continues to show Charlotte, along with Seattle and Portland as the only 3 cities in their top 20 index to have price gains. While the Charleston real estate market does not appear to be quite as strong as Charlotte, it certainly is not in the same situation as some of the previously exceptionally hot real estate markets which are experiencing more severe price declines.
The subprime lending problems have affected the National real estate market in that tighter lending restrictions are making it more difficult for prospective home buyers to qualify for mortgages, reducing demand somewhat.
April statistics from the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors should be available in about 10 days so stay tuned and we'll provide you the results here.